[ " A good friend of mines house and garage burned down today. She was mowing and parked in the garage right after the mow. She went inside to get an Ice Tea and when she came out the garage was smoking. She quickly reacted and pulled out the Chevelle and the 1956 Ford. Before it all went up in smoke. Crazy lady...... The mower was a zero turn box store cub cadet. It was parked with in feet of the Chevelles gas tank. The paint is actually scorched from the heat and the gas tank is right under the trunk in that car. But love for these old cars kicked in. Luckly she is safe and so are the cars."

Sorry to hear that. She took qite a risk getting the cars out. I wonder if they will ever find out what happened on the mower to cause it to ignite. I see in the link that one fireman was treated for smoke inhalation. That just brings to mind that every fire puts the firefighters at risk.

IMO those cub ZTR are poorly engineered. I have worked on several of them and just about ever time the drive belt has been in really bad shape and the transmission on the left side was down on power. The engine is mounted in the rear and the exhaust comes straight down through the frame and exits just pass the engine drive train to the left. It gets quite hot under there and even the frame is hot to the touch. I'm not really surprised to hear it caught fire. Glad your friend was unhurt and managed to save the cars. I take it everything else is a loss.